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Cast & Production Credits

From Here to Eternity

UPC:
043396053199

Studio:
Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating:
NR Contains:[Adult Situations]

Summary:
The scene is Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, in the languid days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, where James Jones' acclaimed war novel From Here to Eternity brought the aspirations and frustrations of several people sharply into focus. Sergeant Milt Warden (Burt Lancaster) enters into an affair with Karen (Deborah Kerr), the wife of his commanding officer. Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a loner who lives by his own code of ethics and communicates better with his bugle than he does with words. Prew's best friend is wisecracking Maggio (Frank Sinatra, in an Oscar-winning performance that revived his flagging career), who has been targeted for persecution by sadistic stockade sergeant Fatso Judson (Ernest Borgnine). Rounding out the principals is Alma Lorene (Donna Reed), a "hostess" at the euphemistically named whorehouse The New Congress Club. All these melodramatic joys and sufferings are swept away by the Japanese attack on the morning of December 7. No words could do justice to the film's most famous scene: the nocturnal romantic rendezvous on the beach, with Burt Lancaster's and Deborah Kerr's bodies intertwining as the waves crash over them. If you're able to take your eyes off the principals for a moment or two, keep an eye out for George Reeves; his supporting role was shaved down when, during previews, audiences yelled "There's Superman!" and began to laugh. From Here to Eternity won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and supporting awards to Sinatra and Reed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category:
War

Awards:
100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null
Best Director – null
Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Black and White Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Black and White Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Drama or Comedy Score – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Drama or Comedy Score – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Out Of Competition – Cannes Film Festival
Best Picture – National Board of Review
Best Picture – New York Film Critics Circle
Best Actor – New York Film Critics Circle
Best Director – New York Film Critics Circle
Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Best Director – Directors Guild of America

Features:
Audio commentary from Tim Zinnemann and Alvin Sargent
Featurette: "The Making of From Here to Eternity"
Excerpt from "Fred Zinnemann: As I See It"
Theatrical trailers
Filmographies
Production notes

There were few movies greeted with more anticipation than Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity when it opened in 1953. Adapted from one of the best-selling novels of the previous ten years, it was a film for which everyone had high expectations. It lived up to all of them and then some, adding a new level of violence and frankness to popular dramatic films just when the public was ready to accept these elements. (However, the movie couldn't even hint at an aspect that James Jones' novel mentioned almost at its outset: the homosexual advances that Pruett parried from his former sergeant, resulting in his transfer to a rifle company.) Burt Lancaster, who'd previously established himself as a hero-victim in a series of films noirs made under the auspices of Universal and as a costume hero in a pair of Warner Bros. period adventure films (The Flame and the Arrow, The Crimson Pirate), transformed himself into the quintessential macho leading man with his performance; Montgomery Clift gave the performance of his life as Robert E. Lee Pruett, unwilling boxer and trumpet player; ex-navy enlisted man Ernest Borgnine dominated every scene he was in as Sgt. Judson, the most vicious enlisted man seen onscreen in a mainstream American movie up to that time; Deborah Kerr, previously known for her plucky, lady-like roles, got to play an unabashedly sexual woman, and a married one at that; Donna Reed, cast against type as the prostitute with delusions of her own, gave the most honest and wrenching performance of her career; and Frank Sinatra, cast against all prevailing wisdom in Hollywood (and beating out Eli Wallach for the choicest supporting role in Hollywood that year), became a great actor overnight as the doomed Maggio. Even Merle Travis, a veritable god among guitar players but an anonymous figure to most filmgoers, got a memorable scene and song ("Re-Enlistment Blues") out of the film. From Here to Eternity raised the bar for realism (and the genuine, jagged, if ugly side of life) in war movies, and in movies in general. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi